In general terms, the Internet can be considered as a network of computers and information sources on which data networks such as the World Wide Web (WWW) run. Computers which operate on the data networks can communicate with each other, but to do so, the computers require an ability to address and locate one another, and further to identify the network property being sought. The Internet uses a combination of names and IP addresses in order to connect computers in accordance with a hierarchical organizational scheme. Domain names are typically assigned to network resources such as websites and servers. Such domain names are typically formatted in a manner which reflects the hierarchical organizational scheme, with extensions such as .COM or .ORG reflecting a top tier of the hierarchy. Each network resource which is assigned a domain name also has an Internet Protocol (“IP”) address. When computers access a network resource with a domain name, the computers utilize the IP address to locate and access the network resource. The IP addresses, on the other hand, are typically assigned by authoritative entities, often in blocks, for distribution to network properties and resources which may already be associated with a name.
While IP addresses are numerical, the names allotted to network properties are frequently human-recognizable, and considerable motivation often exists to maintain the names of the network properties. However, the IP address of a network property is frequently changed for a variety of reasons, such as for purpose of security or network management. Under the naming scheme, when computers access a network property, a software component on the computer uses the name of the desired network property to obtain the IP address. The mechanism which a computer uses to determine the IP address associated with a particular name or network property is referred to as a domain name system (“DNS”). A DNS typically employs a service to translate a syntax of a request (e.g., user specifies domain name) of a requesting computer into a current IP address. The requesting computer can then access the requested network property using the current IP address.
The Internet has always served as a vehicle for malfeasance, in the form of hacking or online attacks. A relatively simple way to attack the online presence of a network entity or resource (e.g., movie studio releasing a movie title, website providing a service, etc.) is a denial of service (DOS) attack. In the DOS attack, requesting computers are operated (often without knowledge of the operator) to generate continuous and repeated requests for a same network property (or set of network properties). The DNS which handles the request may have its available channels consumed by the requests. If a sufficient quantity of requests can be generated, the DNS can be flooded, so that only a portion of the total requests can be serviced by the DNS. The number of genuine requests which can receive an IP address of a DNS under attack then drops, resulting in the network property or resource receiving significantly less traffic than it would otherwise receive.